ELECTION OF JUSTICES.

Putaruru Press, Volume IV, Issue 156, 28 October 1926, Page 4

ELECTION OF JUSTICES.

AN ABOMINABLE SYSTEMS* America’s Bad Example. According to Mr. J. W. Poynton, S.M., an attempt will be made 'in this country to have Justices of the Peace placed in office by elective methods. Speaking before the Matamata branch of the Justices of the Peace tion, Mr. Poynton said the system was really an abomination. All but nineteen judges in the United States, these being- Supreme Court judges, and of very high standing, were elected. Needless to say, their minds ware not actuated by principles of justice or fair play. They had to consider the votes to he cast at the end of their five years’ period; there were, in consequence, some awful miscarriages of justice. In one case, a judge was induced to sign a judgment or decision prior to the coming before him. This judgment was in favour of a mining company, who were thereby given the extraordinary right of following- a vein of ore from their own property into adjacent lands, and since it took about two and a-half years to get a .matter of this sort up to the Supreme Court, by that time the unfortunate property owner had been defrauded, and the offending company had extracted all the gold from the ore. In all other countries, even in China, the owner had the rights of all that was on the surface of the soil, from the surface to the heavens, and from the surface to the interior of the earth. However, they had different notions in America. The judge was often a tool of a company or party, and the result was that the people lost confidence in the administration of justice. It had been authoritatively stated that there were 120,000 murderers walking the streets in the United States. Over the border, in Canada, it took about fi\ e weeks from the apprehension of a murderer until he paid the penalty of his crime; in the United States murder cases dragged on for years, even those which had been deliberately committed in cold blood, apd often the criminal got off. The system was an absolute abomination, and New Zealand would do well to fight against its introduction to this country. ♦